Controversial bonuses paid to Georgia Lottery employees could be whacked by 90 percent or more under Georgia’s new HOPE scholarship law. But there’s nothing to stop the lottery board from jacking up executives’ base salaries to make up the difference. In fact, the board did so just last year, giving CEO Margaret DeFrancisco a $67,000 raise.

The head of the Georgia Lottery made about a half-million dollars last year, but you wouldn’t know it if you checked salary data on the state auditor’s website. Open.Georgia.gov shows Margaret DeFrancisco was paid $353,500 in salary in FY2010. What it doesn’t tell you is that the lottery paid her a bonus of $143,276 last year. What’s up with that?